Chasing Birds
by Oliveree
Summary: Nodoka wishes she could be anyone but herself: confident, charming, adventurous, brave... Coincidentally, it was everything a professional Hunter should've been. DISCONTINUED
1. When the Bird Leaves the Nest

**CHASING BIRDS**

**Chapter One:**

_When the Bird Leaves the Nest  
_

* * *

Running away was the easy bit.

Nodoka's home was a small, two-story house. Sokosa-san was asleep, downstairs. Her bedroom was next to the back entrance, since she had always been deathly afraid of a fire or some other hazard forcing them to have to get out of the house quickly. The key for the back door was always on her bedside table.

"You never know what might happen," Sokosa-san had said to Nodoka when she had asked about it, but Nodoka already knew that a small part of her aunt was ashamed of her own neuroticism.

From the top of the staircase, Nodoka thought she could hear her grandfather speaking in his bedroom. Her grandfather had been living with Sokosa-san and her ever since Grandmother had passed away. He arrived at their household with a smile and a pocketful of sweets, but Nodoka always heard him refer to 'Juri-chan' as if she had never left.

Nodoka strained her ears and realised Grandfather was just sleep talking, something she thought was hereditary since Sokosa-san sometimes did it and she supposedly did it a lot, too.

She waited for the house to still.

Until the only thing she could hear were crickets chirping, Nodoka silently treaded down the stairs. Now the only sound in the house was the soft thudding of her feet. Reaching the end of the fleet of stairs, Nodoka walked along the corridor to Sokosa-san's bedroom, whose door was slightly ajar. She opened it slowly.

Nodoka could've gone through the front door without any sneaking around, but someone from the village might've seen her if she took the normal route out.

The door didn't squeak anymore because Nodoka had oiled it beforehand. Stepping inside the bedroom, she saw her aunt – a restless figure on the bed, tangled in a mess of blankets. Nodoka noticed her red hair was slightly oily and she was still wearing the clothes she had worn during the day.

_She must've been up late drinking, again…_ Nodoka thought, sadly. The day Nodoka had asked for her aunt to sign the Hunter Exam permit was the day her aunt broke down. Nodoka smoothed her aunt's hair away and neatly pull her blankets over her. Sokosa-san's sleep was always deep when she had drunk herself into a slumber.

Nodoka kissed her aunt a last goodbye on the cheek and took the keys from the table.

* * *

Paru was waiting for her outside.

Nodoka pulled on her boots and slung her knapsack over her shoulders. Bringing her hands to her mouth, she let out a low bird call.

From the dark sky, a small figure swooped down to hover over Nodoka and then perch itself on her shoulders. It was dark, but Nodoka could make out the familiar, golden splotches on its head and its long wings which looked more like ornaments than instruments for flight.

Looking at its owner with small, black eyes, it gave her a look which said 'Where to, now?'

She held her palm up to Paru who pecked at the seeds in it. Nodoka began to look back at her childhood home, but she swore never to look back the moment she decided to run away since it distracted her from the 'now'.

Or maybe she was scared to know what Sokosa-san would say.

...

...

It was _deciding_ to run away that was hard.


	2. Where the Wild Things Are

**CHASING BIRDS**

**Chapter Two:**

_Where the Wild Things Are_

* * *

When Nodoka woke up that morning and smelt the salty breeze from the window and saw the clear blue sky, she almost forgot she wasn't home anymore.

After paying the innkeeper for the room, Nodoka left to wait to board the boat to the Hunter Exams. She wished it would hurry, since she didn't want any villagers to notice who she was and ask her what she was doing at the pier so early in the morning. And she especially didn't want anyone tattling on her to Sokosa-san.

Nodoka was surprised to feel a little excited instead of scared of being caught out.

Sitting at the very edge of the pier, Nodoka stared blankly ahead at the ocean, the wind combing through her flossy, pink hair. Last night in the motel, Nodoka spent an hour at the sink washing out the brown dye in her hair to reveal its purely pink undertones. She was an adventurer now, so…

Supposedly, she didn't need to hide her hair, anymore. The pink hair made her feel disclosed though, and she nearly dyed it back to a murky brown before feeling guilty. What a coward she was! And she shouldn't be worried about being a 'try-hard' since it was her natural hair colour!

When Nodoka didn't respond to Paru's poking and demands for bird seed, the bird flew over to a group of pigeons and began to 'chat' with them. A large ship had parked itself on the other side of the pier and as time wore on, more Hunter Exam participants began to gather. They were rough looking – there faces marred from the experiences of encountering death itself. Nodoka felt her chest tighten – was the life of a Hunter for her if thousands of people like that failed or even died each year? There was no sign from the ship to let examinees on board.

There was a small disturbance in the crowds of Hunter examinees as a small, flustered girl (who couldn't be any older than eight years old) emerged, trying to talk them. She kept approaching different men, waving her arms around, and when they couldn't answer back or simply refused to, she glared at them and switched to a new guy.

"XXXXXX XX, XXX XXXX XXX XXXXXX XXXXX?"

"…What?"

"XXX XXXX XXX XXXXXX XXXX!"

Nodoka sighed and turned away, but then she felt a tap on her shoulder and saw the small girl's tanned face next _her_ face. Nodoka began to do a double take until the small girl started talking to her in a foreign language.

"XXX XXXXX XXXX XXXXXX XXXX?"

Nodoka drew a blank. "Huh?"

"XXX XXXX XXX XXXXXX XXXX!"

The small girl threw her arms up in the air as if she was the only one at the 'Earth is a Cube' society who said the world was round. She left Nodoka alone and went to try talk to someone else.

"Wait!" Nodoka yelled out her, grabbing her tanned arm. The small girl turned to look at the strange, pink-haired girl.

Nodoka hated strangers. Well, she didn't _hate_ them, but it's… it's just that… it's just that you don't who they _are_ or what they could _be_. Those rules didn't really apply to the small girl in front of her, but Nodoka just wasn't accustomed to talking to meeting new people every day.

The small girl sweat dropped as Nodoka turned a blotchy, red colour from the neck up. She looked as if her head was going to explode. Weirded out, the small girl tried to shrug Nodoka's grasp off her arm.

"W-Wait!" Nodoka said. The small girl stopped again, but quickly whisked her arm away to fold them across her chest. She frowned and knitted her eyebrows together - this pink-haired girl's stuttering was getting annoying. It was as if someone was rubbing a cheese grater against her brain.

"Are… Are you lost?" Nodoka said, dumbly, when she realised she didn't know what to say. Another sarcastic look from the small girl forced Nodoka to gain her composure. "I- I mean… Do you need any help?" Nodoka asked.

The small girl's master's words suddenly floated through her head: _"It doesn't matter who you get from the pier, I'll bother myself with the weeding of examinees laterrr…"_

The small girl sweat dropped. She began to wonder whether she had to question her allegiances with a certain someone.

"So… do you?" The small girl drew her attention back to Nodoka. She was silent for a moment, but then swiftly nodded her head and walked off, beckoning her to follow.

* * *

"W-Woah… do you really need this stuff?"

The small girl shrugged and skipped along the ocean side market, whistling. Nodoka clumsily balanced a wobbly tower of random junk as her new acquaintance skipped happily down the shops. She stopped at a stall and pointed at something. Nodoka hobbled over.

"What's this…?" Nodoka asked as she squinted at the wooden thing which looked remarkably like… an ordinary rock.

The small girl shrugged. Nodoka gaped at the girl as she put the palm full of jeni towards her face, her own small, tanned face saying: 'I want to buy! I want to buy!' Nodoka nervously laughed and turned to the person behind the stall.

"Um… how much are you willing to sell this for…?" The person behind the stall didn't even look up from his newspaper.

"One hundred jeni,"

"Oh…Ah…" Nodoka bit her lip. _A bit expensive for a rock._ "Are you sure you want to buy this one?" She said to the small girl. Out of all the wonderful things in the ocean side market, the small girl wanted a _rock_.

The small girl nodded vigorously and Nodoka sighed, ruffling the younger girl's head. After Nodoka had handed over the money, she gave the girl her rock, which put a smile so bright on the little girl's face you could've hooked the ends over her ears.

As the two were looking at the stalls, Nodoka watched the younger girl from behind the mountain of knick-knacks she had made her carry. _Well, I did ask her if she needed any help, and she _is_ paying with her own money…_

"Say, what should I call you?" Nodoka asked the small girl as she played with a second-hand jack-in-the-box. Up until now, Nodoka simply didn't refer to the girl as anything and hoped the small girl would just assume she was talking to her. Nodoka didn't want to call the small girl 'girl', since that made her sound slightly crude. Now, though, Nodoka wanted to call the small girl something since she was starting to feel a little attached to her. Like she was the little sister she never had.

The small girl put on a cute thinking face as she held the jack-in-the-box. Nodoka put the tower of knick-knacks down for a while and took the toy from the small girl's hands, placing it back on the stall.

Nodoka went eye-to-eye with the small girl and pointed to herself. "Noh-doh-kah,"

The small girl folded her arms across her chest. Why couldn't the pink-haired girllearn _her_ language? And she was playing with the jack-in-the-box! But anyway, the small girl complied. "Nodoka,"

Nodoka smiled looking pleased, and pointed to the small girl. When the small girl looked confused for a second, Nodoka pointed to herself, repeated her name, and then pointed to the small girl.

Ooooh, so the pink-haired girl was called 'Nodoka'. It sounded like a type of coconut. The small girl didn't get anything about Nodoka pointing at _her_ after she said her name, though. Rolling her eyes, she reached into her pocket and held out a palm full of jeni towards Nodoka, motioning to her to buy the jack-in-the-box for her.

"Your name's Jeni?" Nodoka said. She pointed a finger at the small girl's chest. "Jeni."

The small girl was about to protest, but then again…

'Jeni' wasn't such a bad name.

The small girl pointed at Nodoka's chest, smiling "Nodoka," she pointed at her own chest, "Jeni."

* * *

"Noooooooooooooo!" wailed Nodoka, nearly sending the stuff Jeni bought on the market flying in all directions. "The Hunter Exam! I forgot!"

"Sorry, Jeni!" Nodoka cried, quickly stuffing the things into Jeni's arms.

"Hunter Exam?" Jeni said. It was one of the few words she knew of Nodoka's language.

"Yes, yes, the Hunter Exams!" Nodoka said, putting stuff that was falling out of Jeni's small arms back onto their pile. "I was having so much fun here, that I forgot I was waiting for the boat to the Hunter Exams!"

Jeni shook her head, smirking a little. Dropping the tower of stuff into Nodoka's arms again, Jeni pointed to the opposite direction.

"Hunter Exam," she said, pointing insistently in that direction. When Nodoka looked closely, jeni was pointing at a large hill.

"B-But… the boat and all those other examinees…" Jeni scowled. She _hated_ stuttering.

Looking around, Jeni pointed at toy magic set on the stall table.

"Magic…?" Jeni rolled her eyes and made an 'X' with her arms.

"It's not real magic? Of course not, it says right here in the instructions that it's all just a trick…"

Jeni nodded.

"The boat isn't the one taking as to the exams? It's a trick?" Nodoka asked. Jeni nodded again. "How do you know that?"

Jeni tried to think of a way to say 'my master was hired by the Hunters Association to weed out the candidates' with her body language, but instead held out her hand to Nodoka, smiling.

Nodoka clearly knew that facial expression. She had grown adept at reading the facial expressions of birds as a child, so she could easily make out the one on Jeni's face…

It said, 'do you trust me?'

Nodoka smiled and took her hand, and Jeni grinned, dragging Nodoka to the place where the examinees would be taken to be taken to the Hunter Exam.

_Candidate successfully passes._

"Aaaaargh! I forgot Paru!"


	3. Little Miss Sensitive

**CHASING BIRDS**

**Chapter Three:**

_Little Miss Sensitive_

* * *

On a relatively small island that was roughly shaped like a dolphin, there was a blimp.

The blimp landed on one of the island's tallest hills, teetering dangerously on the point. Was the captain of the blimp a madman! It would be disastrous if the blimp collapsed over one side, falling over and crushing the few towns there were on the dolphin-like island. It was surprising the captain hadn't died on one of his previous escapades, yet, considering his claims of having _decades_ worth of experience in aerial flight.

The captain of the blimp had an apprentice named Buruma, a very young girl only eight years of age. She was an orphan he had found while helping out one of his Archaeological buddies in an excavation _way_ back. The kid could speak an extinct language fluently, but didn't know the alphabet of the language she'd been surrounded with for three years.

The captain was currently in the pilot's control room. A half-empty cup of cold coffee was among the control panels, and the captain could just imagine Buruma nagging him about 'the controls being ruined' and 'you parked the blimp on a pond to get coffee and you don't finish it' sort of thing. The captain knew its and bits of Buruma's native tongue, but he found himself too lazy to keep switching between languages. So, he only spoke the universal language, but his dopey face and lazy arms propped in the 'oh, well' position was enough to pee Buruma off. Boy, for an eight-year-old kid, she acted a lot like his mother.

Stretching in his roll-y chair, the captain yawned. He felt even tireder when he heard the examinees in the other rooms playing a very violent drinking game or betting beer with cards or something. If it weren't for his debt to Netero, the captain wouldn't be babysitting wannabe-Hunters while they destroyed his poor baby (the blimp): just a few hours ago, one of the hooligans destroyed the freaking wall! Now there was a gaping hole in it which left a draft drifting through the airship and Buruma flew through the roof when she saw the mess. Hey, the _men_ didn't do the house cleaning, after all.

The captain noticed the door open and speak of the devil; Buruma was standing there, looking a bit bedraggled.

"Ah!" The captain said, relieved he wouldn't have to be cleaning any wall debris tonight. "There you are, Buruma!"

She scowled when she saw the coffee cup among the panels. Instead of nagging him again, though, she ignored him and took one of his 'special' blankets hidden in the chest where he put his secret candy stash. The blankets were only special because she used laundry detergent he wasn't allergic to for them in a separate wash. Apparently, the captain's skin had a bad reaction to lavender.

"H-Hey! Buruma! What are you doing with one of my special blankets!" cried the captain as he tried to swipe them out of Buruma's hand.

"XXXXX XXX XXXX XXX XXXXXXXX!" she said slapping his hands away. The captain paused, scratching his head. He only understood half of that sentence… let's see, um…

"You got someone from the potato?"

**WHACK!**

"Ok, ok… you found someone from the _pier_," said the captain, rubbing his sore cheek. Buruma made a sarcastic face which said 'oh, how did you know?'

The captain laughed and ruffled Buruma's dark hair. "Alright… let's get the Pre-Exams underway."

* * *

When Jeni opened the door to the main room of the blimp, she had to duck as a broken beer bottle nearly whacked her in the face. Booze sloshed across the hallway and onto her head.

"Fight! Fight! Fight!" A messy blur of two kids (who didn't look much older than her) beating each other up was the centre of attention. A small crowd of gregarious men stinking of booze (officially dubbed as 'Hunter-wannabes' by the captain and her) cheered them on.

Jeni rolled her eyes in contempt. Her knuckles turned white as she drew the door back to slam the door. How barbaric.

"I bet a thousand jenis on the pink-haired kid!"

**WHAT!**

Letting go of the towel and doorknob she was holding, Jeni rushed into the room and saw the somehow sweet, patient NODOKA scrambling to punch another kid. Nodoka face had twisted in complete fury. The other kid easily nullified Nodoka's attacks, but didn't hit back He looked like he could've easily taken her, but was holding back because his opponent was a girl! How sexist!

Jeni's jaw dropped when Nodoka had grabbed the other kid's white hair and pushed his face into the floorboards. Jeni violently pushed the crowd apart and grabbed Nodoka by the stomach. She gasped when Nodoka elbowed her in a struggle to punch the other kid's face, but she strained her arms and pushed Nodoka onto the ground, a few meters away from the other kid.

Nodoka looked up, her teal eyes blinking back a few angry tears. "J-Jeni…!" Nodoka tried to stand up by herself, growling at how sore she was.

Jeni shooed away the crowd of groaning Hunter-wannabes and helped Nodoka to her feet. Nodoka vaguely wondered whether _normal_ eight-year-olds were able to push older kids into the ground, separate fights and dodge flying beer bottles.

"Well, _that_ was uneventful," the other kid said, smirking a bit. He stood up and brushed his unsoiled clothes off.

**SNAP**

"Y-You! I'm gonna **MURDER** you!" screeched Nodoka, her face looking more like a tomato than ever. Jeni raised her eyebrows. Wow, even Nodoka's death threats were G-rated.

When Nodoka steadied herself, she noticed the other kid was barely even scratched. Her face contorted in frustration again. She didn't even get a hit on him. The other kid laughed a bit and stuck his tongue out at her, enjoying himself a little too much. "You couldn't beat me in a million years!"

"Yeah, right! You didn't even lay a single punch on me!" yelled Nodoka back, absorbed in her petty fury. She knew what she was saying was false. The other kid was not only dodging and nullifying her attacks, he wasn't even trying to attack her, either.

Jeni saw she was getting nowhere: for some reason, Nodoka had a really bad reaction to the other kid's taunting. Nodoka didn't seem like the type to try and pick a fight; in fact, Nodoka was a complete PUSHOVER (Remember the previous chapter? If you count how much stuff Jeni bought at the market, Jeni had forced Nodoka to carry 456 broken toys and rocks.)

What made Nodoka Minemori tick?

"You sexist!" Nodoka yelled, pointing his finger at his face. "You were afraid of hitting a _girl_, weren't you?"

Wow, she caught on pretty quickly.

The white-haired kid scowled. "You should be grateful! If I had gone all out, you would've **died!**"

"Died! Don't overestimate yourself!"

The white-haired kid's face paled.

_No, I'm actually being modest._

Sensing the sudden change in atmosphere, Nodoka heart skipped a bit. Now that she had calmed down a bit, Nodoka realised they were alone in the large room and Jeni had gone somewhere. Nodoka took a few steps closer towards the suddenly sullen boy.

"I-I'm sorry…" Nodoka's habitual stuttering had returned. "…Did I go too far?"

The white-haired kid's face had turned to look at the ground. "No…" _It's my fault for being this way, anyway._

Nodoka noticed his expression and everything was silent for a few moments.

…

…

…

_I've got to break the ice! I've got to break the ice!_

…

"S-So… I'm Nodoka! What's your name!" Nodoka squealed loudly, frantically trying to be perky and cheerful. She was crying on the inside.

_What a lame ice-breaker!_ Nodoka was about to slap herself.

"I'm Killua!" said boy, joining in all chirpily. Nodoka's jaw dropped her hand stopping right next to her cheek.

_Huh!_ Nodoka felt herself begin to feel uncomfortable as she watched the Killua blinking innocently and being… HAPPY.

_FAKE._

Nodoka could _smell_ it, but she couldn't _grasp_ it. It was as if it was test answer that was on the tip of her tongue, but she couldn't put it in words.

_F-A-K-E_

It didn't matter if Killua was being insincere, anyway, since Nodoka though it would be insensitive to probe. What she didn't want was to offend anyone, even if it was someone she was trying to beat up moments ago because he had made a snide comment about her pink hair.

Maybe she was being too sensitive.

Or maybe she was secretly enjoying being mad at someone for once instead of it all being backwards.

It was terrifying, social awkwardness, but in a different way than from falling off a cliff or being eaten alive by fire ants.

"**ATTENTION ALL HUNTER-WANNABES! PLEASE PREPARE YOURSELF FOR A ROCKY AND FUN-FILLED FLIGHT ON THE WRIGHT FLYER!"**


	4. Bird Brain

**CHASING BIRDS**

**Chapter Four:**

_Bird Brain_

* * *

The blimp sharply veered upwards and the captain hung onto the lever he had pulled to do so. His body dangled in mid-air as the ground turned vertical and with the blimp's nose now pointing to the sky. The captain's roll-y chair skidded across the floorboards and he barely whisked his body out of the way until his coffee cup sailed overhead, splashing its half-finished contents over his head. Licking the taste of cold coffee off his lips, the captain hoisted his foot onto the lever and stretched his arm out for the intercom microphone.

* * *

Upside down and flat against the wall, Nodoka slowly slid down it, her head hitting the floor first with a solid THUNK. Trying to sit up, she felt a bit dizzy and her eyeballs were still rattling in their sockets.

Dangling from the ceiling fan, Killua jumped neatly onto the floor, hands still in pockets. He smirked and stifled a bit of his laughter, having gotten over his fake cheerfulness after the blimp's sudden freewheeling.

"How did you even think of stepping _outside_ with those skills?" he said incredulously, looking down at Nodoka, who was on the floor. She blinked back at him with wide eyes. "It's 100% assured that's you don't have any hope of passing the Hunter Exam like _that_."

Hot tears welled up in Nodoka's eyes. Killua winced.

_Ugh. Not AGAIN. Why does she cry so EASILY?_

Nodoka, however, didn't start wailing or begin an hour long crying jag. She sniffled into her shirt and wiped her eyes.

"Y-You don't know," she began. She furrowed her eyebrows and looked into Killua's dark eyes. Her eyes were slightly red. "You… You don't know my full potential."

Nodoka was half-bluffing. She was positively weak against Killua and she knew he could take her in any fight. He, however, had only known her for under a span of an hour or so. He shouldn't have been assuming things about her skills. He was being arrogant.

And she knew, she just knew she couldn't be _this_ weak, though.

Killua was surprised when he found himself totally immersed in her stare. Her teal eyes searched his eyes, like they were searching his heart and rummaging through his untouched secrets…

He finally managed to shift his gaze. "No, but you have to have already _fulfilled_ that potential just to survive."

* * *

Jeni held an ice pack over a dark bruise on Nodoka's upper arm. After the blimp's shocking take off, the blimp was now steadily floating above the town's area facing the _right_ way up.

It had been some time since Nodoka had boarded the blimp, but so far she had only explored one room: the room she tried to beat up Killua in (and miserably failed in doing so), ended up staring at his eyes for three whole minutes and now was being tended to by an eight-year-old girl in, when it really should've been the other way around.

Killua had went somewhere on the blimp. Regarding Killua, she could only make out the slight notion of MALEVOLENCE in him, even when she tried staring into the very depths of his soul, before. He was hiding that part of him. How she could tell? She wondered about this for a while.

Women's intuition?

Attempting to 'figure out' Killua by searching the very depths of his soul was sort of accidental. The truth is, Nodoka was trying to 'death-glare' him, but then it turned into a staring contest and her inevitable 'looking into his soul' bit.

And what was that last thing he said? _"No, but you have to have already fulfilled that potential just to survive._ For that moment, it seemed he was no longer just referring to the Hunter Exams.

_Maybe I should just attempt the exam next year?_

"Nodoka?" The vowels in her name were slightly accentuated.

Her thoughts fuzzily disappeared and she snapped out of her reverie. Jeni had already finished bandaging all of her bruises.

A smile spread on Nodoka's face. "Thanks, Jeni." She stood up, her limbs stiff. "But… Why did you also bandage my bruises? They would've healed the same without."

Jeni looked up at Nodoka with large and slightly amused eyes. She rummaged in Nodoka's backpack (which Nodoka had completely forgotten about) and took out a pen. Nodoka sweat dropped when Jeni also took out a book from her bag, tore a page from it and began scribbling on it. She shoved the paper into Nodoka's lap. Smoothing out the page, Nodoka saw a badly drawn stick figure in a dress scrawled across the book's original text.

A great, big smile grew on Nodoka's face. She ruffled Jeni's dark hair.

"Thanks,"

* * *

The blimp the Hunter-wannabes were riding on had a trapdoor which led to a balcony on the very top of the airship in the open air.

Killua was gripping the railing, watching the hazy clouds floating along the sky. The wind was cold and felt sharp against his skin.

The pink-haired girl… he just knew she had a hunch he wasn't any ordinary kid. He hazily make out that her intuition was sharp. In the future, when she had gained more experience and knowledge, this kind of valuable foresight would probably save her life more than a couple of times.

Someone was climbing onto the balcony. A flurry of pink hair emerged.

"K-Killua?"

Speak of the devil.

"Oh, hi."

Walking over to stand next to Killua, Nodoka put a hand on the rail. There was a brief silence.

"…Are you okay?" she asked, suddenly.

Killua was a surprised for a fraction of a second. "Yeah, of course!" He began, quickly. He smirked, "I'm not a cry baby, in case you have forgotten."

Nodoka gaped with eyes as wide as saucers. "C-CRY BABY!"

"Who else would I be talking about? I saw the tears!"

"I-I resisted!" she cried, "and I am NOT a cry baby!"

Their childish banter went on for a while and then lapsed into a few moments of quiet. Killua spoke first this time.

"So, what's with the bandages? Did you beat yourself up that bad in our fight?"

Nodoka made a face. So he was aware that she was only hurting herself in that fight from before. She managed a half-hearted giggle, though. "Oh, a little girl I met at the port tied them up for me." She fondled the patchy straps of gauze wound around her arms, smiling. "I told her the bandages wouldn't really help with any actual healing, but she was really sweet about… well, everything."

Killua raised an eyebrow. "So… you basically let her play 'doctors and nurses' on?"

"No!" Nodoka said in mock anger which clearly dissipated with a laugh. "She told me it wouldn't do to have a looking beaten up. She used the bandages to cover them up." Nodoka dug into the pockets of her shorts and showed Killua the picture Jeni drew for her.

"… You understood everything she said from this lousy picture?"

Nodoka snatched the picture away. "Don't say that! Sh-She did a good job!"

Killua laughed. He then leaned on the railing, his white hair tousling in the wind. "Is the kid that drew that for you have dark hair, tan skin and looks a couple of years younger than us?"

"Hm? How did you know?"

"She's the captain's apprentice," he said. "I think her name's Buruma or something."

"Buruma?" Nodoka wondered out loud. "…No, that's probably not her, then. The girl who did my bandages is named Jeni."

Killua shrugged. The two continued to watch the sky together for a moment.

"Hey, since we're talking all casually and all does that mean we're ok between us, now? We can be at least reasonably civil to each other, right?" Nodoka blurted out. Killua looked at her weirdly. He smirked.

"You make it sound like we're an item that had just had a lover's spat or something," he teased. Nodoka flushed.

"N-No! I didn't mean it _that_ way-"

"I'm only joking, sheesh," Killua said, turning to stare at the sky again. Nodoka turned to the sky, too. "Plus, _you_ were the one trying to beat me up." She smiled at that.

All had turned into a comfortable silence. The clouds seemed to drift faster Nodoka gazed at them, and she realized that this sort of silence seemed sort of nice, even. It was remarkably different from an awkward silence.

_Wait, I just realised,_ Nodoka thought, dreamily, _this is the first time I've actually gotten along alright with a boy, huh?_

* * *

"BURUMAAAAAAAAAAA! THE WRIGHT FLYER MICROPHOONE BROOOOOOKE!"

Buruma scowled at the disturbance. She finished packing the medical supplies and went to the infirmary to store them.

Arriving at the control room of the Wright Flyer, Buruma opened the door to see a lone figure sobbing in the corner. The captain whipped his head to Buruma, huge –crocodile- tears rolling down his cheeks.

"Burumaaa…" he wailed between hiccups, clutching the eight-year-old and weeping into her shirt. "The m-microphone… the microphone won't wooork…" He let out another anguished cry.

Buruma walked over to the control panel and pressed the red button next to the microphone holder.

_Ding._

An A.I (artificially intelligent) voice resonated from the speakers. The voice of the message was female and auto-tuned. **"NOTE TO THE CAPTAIN: THE WRIGHT FLYER INTERCOM MICROPHONE HAS BEEN ACTIVATED."**

…

"Ho, ho!" said the captain, jumping up cheerily. "Well, what did I tell you, squirt? I told you everything was going to be okay!"

**WHACK!**

* * *

"Hey, Killua?"

"Yeah?"

"…You don't think my hair's weird, do you?" Nodoka said. It was a question bugging her ever since she washed out the brown dye in it.

"…Does this have something to do with me saying that you looked like candy floss on a stick a few hours ago downstairs? The thing that made you try to beat me up?"

"N-No!" Nodoka replied, waving her arms awkwardly. She couldn't believe she had forgotten about that! "I mean, my _hair_, it's pink, and…"

"Well, duh, it's weird. It's bright _pink_, you idiot!" Killua stated very bluntly. A huge (mental) weight dropped onto Nodoka's head.

"W-well… I mean…" Nodoka scratched her head, her face burning from embarrassment. Killua noticed how flushed her face looked.

"What I mean is," he began quickly. He felt a little regretful from being so harshly honest, "is that since its pink of all colours, you shouldn't expect people to ignore or just ignore it as any ordinary thing."

Nodoka face returned to its normal colour. She watched Killua talk, captivated.

"You should be aware, and admit that it _is _weird, and that people _aren't_ going to simply ignore it. If you like your hair, you have to accept it and just deal with it, you know?"

Nodoka swiftly nodded, writing down notes in a random notepad. Killua swiped the booklet and chucked it over the edge of the blimp. It whizzed through the sky and quickly turned into a small dot in the sky until it disappeared.

Nodoka was horrified. "Hey! I paid for that notepad!"

"Don't write notes, you idiot!" he hissed. His face was red. Killua had never been in a situation where he'd comforted someone before.

It was awfully EMBARRASSING! He didn't need someone _recording_ it!

Nodoka scratched her head again, but this time, out of confusion, not embarrassment. "It was a good piece of advice, though," she admitted. Killua blinked.

"And you know what, Killua? You're right: I shouldn't want people to ignore my hair. I should be the one accepting it and flaunting it!" She pumped her fists and looked at Killua with big, sparkling eyes. Killua cringed. Sparkle, sparkle. "I'll throw my shoulders back and bravely face whatever is coming my way! HURRAH!"

He hit her over the head. "IDIOT! You ruined the moment!"

"IT WAS A GOOD PIECE OF ADVICE, THOUGH!"

Killua sighed and shifted his eyes to the floor. "Well, anyway, about the 'candy floss on a stick' thing? Forget about it."

Nodoka stared at him. She smiled "I already did, until you brought it up."

Killua stared at her. He rolled his eyes. "But you practically tried to _beat me up _(and failed) over it. You couldn't have forgotten about it that easily."

"…Y-yeah," Nodoka said. She laughed it off, embarrassed. "S-Sorry… about that…"

"…Whatever. You _so_ owe me, though."

Nodoka turned to look over the railing and down at the town's area. The early morning had long passed and the town was now bustling with crowds. As the scenery on the ground slowly drifted, changing, she spotted the pier.

"Ooooh, look," she said, pointing. "All of the other exam takers."

The boat next to the pier had not moved at all and all of the fierce looking men from hours before were still waiting.

Killua peered over the edge, too. "I bet not one of them are going to pass the test in the end," he said, coolly confidant. Nodoka looked over at him.

"What makes you say that?"

"Well, one reason is because-"

"**WELCOME, HUNTER EXAM TEST TAKERS!"**

"- of that."

The balcony Killua and Nodoka were currently on was small enough so that only about six or seven people might've been able to stand on it with enough personal space. That balcony was on the very top of the blimp. A platform that was only one by one metres in area rose from the tiles of that balcony, startling Nodoka. A man stood on the platform and arose with it, grinning from ear to ear. He noticed Nodoka looking like a startled fawn and Killua looking bored. He winked at Nodoka and she turned a blotchy red in the face.

Below, the attention the man on the platform was attracting was creating a subtle disturbance among the examinees congregating around and on the pier. The blimp completely stopped moving and cast a large shadow over the contenders.

"**GREETINGS, FOLKS! I'M THE CAPTAIN! THIS YEAR, THE EXAMINEES WHO CAME TO THIS ISLAND TO BE TAKEN TO THE HUNTER EXAM HAVE FAILED!**

A lot of 'you must be kidding me'-s and 'what the #$%'-s were heard amongst the examinees on the pier. The disturbance escalated into a chaotic mass of violent confusion, disbelief and objections. Nodoka shuddered. It was lucky that no one of the beefy examinees knew she had secretly passed.

"**ALL EXCEPT FOR ONE EXTREMELY LUCKY EXAMINEE!"**

Oh. My. God.

Well, they hadn't said her name, yet, right?

"**NODOKA MINEMORI! DO YOU HAVE ANYTHING TO SAY TO ANY OF THESE FAILED CONTESTANTS!"**

Oh. My. GAWD.

Nodoka looked more than horrified. Her face kept switching from emotion to emotion like she was trying on each one so she could wear it for the day. Sad? Angry? Shy? Confused? Furious? Killua watched her face, amused. A random microphone was randomly flung at her. It hit her in the middle of her forehead, KNOCKING HER OFF HER FEET. She snapped out of her momentary stun and fumbled to catch the falling microphone.

"**AH, NO WORRIES, NODOKA! YOU SHOULD WORRY MORE ABOUT YOURSELF!"** The captain laughed hysterically. Killua sweat dropped and Nodoka was stunned again. He was making her out to be some… some soppy villain that let the heroes go for that day because he was in a good mood! "**MESSING AROUND, FOLKS! THERE IS STILL A CHANCE FOR YOU UNLUCKY ONES TO TAKE A SHOT AT THE HUNTER EXAMS!"**

Not only the examinees stuck on the island were dumbstruck by the blimp and booming voice on the blimp, but the regular townspeople were beginning to stare and murmur amongst themselves, too.

Ecstatic that he had also single-handedly paused a whole island in their activities (albeit small) by using sheer vocals, the man on the balcony continued.

"**THIS BLIMP IS CURRENTLY ON ONE END OF THE ISLAND. THIS BLIMP WILL TRAVEL 3KM/H FROM THE PIER TO THE END OPPOSITE IT. THAT IS PRETTY SLOW, FOLKS! BETWEEN THIS TIME FROM WHEN THIS BLIMP STARTS MOVING AND ITS SHADOW IS FULLY CAST OVER THE OCEAN WATERS ON THE OPPOSITE SIDE OF THE ISLAND, YOU'LL ATTEMPT TO BOARD THIS BLIMP. HOWEVER, THE BLIMP WILL NOT LAND!"**

Mutterings were heard. Among most of them were despiteful 'I'm gonna kill this Nodoka punk'-s and 'who does this Nodoka guy think he is'-s, much to Nodoka's horror. And she was a girl, for heaven's sake!

**"HOW YOU TRY TO BOARD THIS BLIMP IS UP TO YOU! USE YOUR IMAGINATION!"**

The blimp began to move.

"**THE PRELIMINARY HUNTER EXAMS WILL COMMENCE WITH A COUNTDOWN FROM FIVE TO 0!**

"**FIVE!"**

Killua patted Nodoka on the back. "Well, I guess we better get inside"

"**FOUR!"**

She looked up him with tears spilling over her cheeks. Killua squinted at them. Well at least she wasn't being loud and bawling all over him.

"Why?" she asked, sniffling. She quite liked it outside.

"**THREE!"**

"There's a railing around this balcony. Someone could easily use rope or a hook to get a grip on the railing and climb up. And if they find out you're Nodoka, you're gonna get it."

"**TWO!"**

Nodoka winced. "Someone couldn't possibly get it up this high, though!"

"**ONE!"**

"Do you wanna bet?"

"**ZERO! PRELIMARY EXAM, START!"**

A grappling hook flew onto the balcony, landing right next to Nodoka with a loud THUNK. She screamed and scrambled to grab Killua by the shirt and bolt inside, nearly strangling him to death. "I'M COMING! I'M COMING!"


	5. Idiot on Board

**CHASING BIRDS**

**Chapter Four:**

_Idiot on Board_

* * *

"The Hunter Exam," the captain took a long sip from a fresh cup of coffee, the taste lingering on his tongue, "is split into five stages. My job takes place before the exams begin and consists of me guiding only worthy Hunter Exam registrants to the exam site."

"The boat was just a decoy. Several years ago, Hunter-wannabes were only taken to the exam site by boat; there is nothing on the list of exam conditions that state that a boat would be taking them to the exam site. There is only a vague sentence saying there would be some sort of preliminary trial. Most Hunter-wannabes have already taken the exam a couple of times before and so will most probably assume that that would be the case again for this year."

"So far, I've taken this blimp around to seven islands, including Dolphin Isle, to collect Hunter-wannabes. I've used the exact same sorting process for each island: pilot the Wright Flyer to hover over the pier, state the pre-exam conditions and watch the contenders try to board the blimp by being creative."

"Yeah, yeah, I know all that already," Nodoka hissed impatiently, "but what does THAT have to do with you totally blowing my cover out there?"

"Huh? What do you mean?"

"Now I'm gonna be hated!" Nodoka cried, throwing her hands up at the ceiling. "They think I'm some sort of smartass! ME! A SMARTASS!" She shook the captain in mixed hysteria and fury. Scalding coffee spilled over the sides of his mug. "You don't understand! They're gonna come get me! THEY'RE GONNA COME GET **ME!"**

"Aw! Don't be so modest, Pinky!" The captain laughed, putting his hand on her head to keep her an arms length away from his coffee. "You totally deserved your victory!"

"What victory!" she shouted. She paced around the control room, twitching, her eyes shifting nervously. "The actual Hunter Exam hasn't even started yet! And yet, the only reason I was able to pass the preliminaries is because I was helped! And because of my dumb luck, I'm now being targeted by dangerous men arms with guns and swords!"

"Lighten up, Pinky-"

"**YOU'RE NOT HELPING WITH THE STUPID NICKNAME!"**

"Buruma, right?"

The clamorous sounds of the captain's preliminary Hunter Exams outside were dulled by the solid walls of the blimp. Killua was walking down a hallway somewhere when he wandered past Jeni, who was going the opposite direction.

The small, tanned girl looked up at him with dark eyes. Her heart skipped a beat when their eyes connected and she turned and rushed past him, disappearing around the corner.

* * *

"I've got a question, sir," Nodoka mumbled, still a little upset. The captain had managed to calm her down with the promise of staying in the pilot's cockpit for the rest of the trip to the Hunters Exam test site. A 'DO NOT DISTURB' sign was hanging on the door outside.

The captain did a couple of 360°s in his roll-y chair, amused at the formalities. "Yeah, yeah, what is it, Pinky?" he said, grinning lopsidedly. Nodoka's frown deepened. In exchange for utter safety for the rest of the flight, Pinky- I mean, Nodoka had to let the captain was allowed to call her that hideous nickname.

"The preliminary Hunter Exams occurring right now," Nodoka muttered, "why aren't I participating in them?"

"What a stupid question!" The captain roared, laughing and slapping his knee with the hand that wasn't holding his mug of coffee. Nodoka blushed furiously.

"SH-SHUT UP!"

"Don't be shy, Pinky," teased the captain. He stopped moving around in his chair and put a hand on Nodoka's head. He smiled at her. "I think, in the end, the reason is because-"

Nodoka leaned in, eyes shining. Was she a special case, for once?

"-I was bored."

Nodoka fell forward, legs in the air anime style. The captain rolled out of the way just in time. "WHAT!" Nodoka cried, looking up.

"To be honest, I don't particularly care about who gets to the Hunter Exams or not," the captain said, shrugging. Nodoka stared, wide-eyed. "If someone who wants to be a Hunter can't even figure out how to hijack an aircraft already in the air should give up. I actually think I'm being nice, here, saving the lives of people who'll probably die later on in the actual Exams." The captain laughed mirthlessly. Nodoka had already paled significantly.

So… did that mean that someone like her who had made the cut with special help would… would…?

Nodoka shook her head, trying to shake out demeaning thoughts. "B-But… But at the port-" she began. The captain broke her off.

"Oh, that?" The captain said, blinking innocently. "Oh, Buruma wanted to go get some rocks for some sort of scrap collection of hers, so I thought it'd funny if someone was actually that much of a pushover to help her."

* * *

Killua was bored, so he went looking for Nodoka. It was ordinary for twelve-year-old boys like him to childishly dislike girls and avoid them out of fear of getting cooties, but Killua wasn't an ordinary twelve-year-old boy. He was, however, still surprised at how easy it was to talk to girls. Well, certain girls, at least.

That Buruma kid… she was an enigma. Unable to speak and introducing herself to people with different names, the Buruma kid had Killua wishing she had an exciting reason explaining the mysteriousness. Like, maybe she had a split personality and randomly sparked by the death of her identical twin, and that maybe she didn't really have a split personality and she was just trying to keep her sister 'alive' by adopting her personality in her.

Remembering that Nodoka had stormed off somewhere to vent out her anguish on the captain, Killua found himself in front of the door to the pilot's control room. There was a sign on the door reading 'DO NOT DISTURB'. From what he could gather, Killua thought the room was a little quiet for an intense temper tantrum to be inside. He tried to turn the handle, but it wouldn't budge. Although reluctantly, he even adjusted his hand to try and break the doorknob to no avail.

Killua resorted to putting his ear against the door to try and listen to any possible conversation going on.

* * *

Nodoka again turned significantly red in the face, but then suddenly thought…

_Who's this 'Buruma?'_

"You know her?" He said when she asked, feigning his nonchalance as he brought his coffee to his lips again. Nodoka noticed his surprise anyway, though, so she continued unsurely.

"Well, no," she said, frowning. "But I did meet someone. She said her name was Jeni, though, not Buruma…"

A rare, dark expression cast over the contours of the captain's face. Nodoka suddenly felt like she had gotten into more of a mess than she should have.

"Jeni, huh…" the captain leant back into his roll-y chair, "now, that isn't a name I've heard in long time." The same solemn expression was still on his face.

"What do you mean?" Nodoka asked.

The captain sat upright in his chair again. He parted his mouth to say something undoubtedly invaluable…

"Why should I tell you?" The captain demanded, frowning sillily. Nodoka fell forward, anime style. The captain never ceased to amaze her.

"Well, for one," Nodoka said, rubbing her forehead from hitting it on the hard floorboards, "I'm Jeni's friend-"

"Buruma's," the captain interrupted.

"Oh," proclaimed Nodoka, "Now, JENI is Buruma-"

"No, actually, Buruma is Jeni. Buruma is her original name."

"Are you going to explain everything in one hit or are you just going to keep interrupting me?" Nodoka yelled, exasperated. Her hands itched to pull out either her hair or the captains. The captain shrugged it all off.

"Depends on whether I'm in a good mood."

**SNAP!**


End file.
